Words are funny sometimes. Think about words like 'such' or 'with' or 'thing'. Sometimes they make sense, and othertimes these words sound made up. If you are someone with an autism spectrum disorder, these words may have little meaning. How do you know what 'such' is? What would that picture look like in your mind? I often think how hard life must be for those poor souls over at Boardmaker who try to come up with symbols for words that everyone can recognize!

Many of our children with ASD are pretty literal and concrete thinkers. Ewan is no different. Autistics will also use that literal and concrete language quite freely and honestly. The little white lie has little meaning for them! They say openly what the rest of us are thinking. Ewan has what we like to call 'Ewanisms'. Some of my favorite 'Ewanisms' include:

"Mom, why is the bill light?" (In reference to our light bill being due!)

When a new doctor met him the other day, the doc pretended his name was Dr. Sock Stealer. The doc then asked Ewan, "Do you want to know my real name?" Ewan's answer, "No, not really."

One time, Ewan had to see a different doctor who had to press on Ewan's stomach and listen to it with his stethoscope. When we were done, Ewan was out in the hall and yelled out to the doc, "Thanks for touching me Doctor!" Oh my, we all got a few looks for that one.

Ewan's teacher asked if his homework was done, his response was, "I don't do homework anymore. I'm all done with that."

Ewan was out with his dad and his dad came across an old friend--a girl with a very short haircut. Well Ewan had been taught in speech that girls usually have longer hair than boys and Ewan asked his dad, "Dad, I can't tell if that's a girl or a boy?" Problem was, he said it loud enough for EVERYONE to hear! ;)

Ewan came up to me yesterday morning as soon as I got out of bed and jumped up for a hug, he pulled back and said, "Grooooossss, you have terrible breath Alicia!" Nothing like honesty at 8am on a Sunday morning!

Ewan was asked on a language test the other day, "What would you say to someone if they just lost a race?" His reply, "It's ok, next time I'll go slower."

One time in the car, the boys were being incredibly crazy, trying to wrestle each other while strapped in their respective car seats. Anthony having just about had enough turned around and said, "If you boys dont' knock it off, I'm gonna lay the smack down!" Ewan said, "Dad, you can't do that--there's laws against it." He may well have a career in law.

Another time, my husband had been driving too fast and was pulled over by a policeman. When the officer came to the door, Ewan said quite loudly, "My dad was driving really fast!" No getting out of that one. Then Ewan asked the officer, "Where's your mustache?" In Ewan's head, all police officers should sport a mustache.

Ewan has to check in with one of his doctors every few months because of migraines, when we showed up to the office I think he was still a little confused about which doctor he was going to see that day. When she walked in he said, "I don't want you today, I want to see that other doctor!"

Remember for those of you living and working with someone 'on the spectrum'--it's never meant in anger or to ridicule, it's just how their brain is working. Sometimes it's nice to have such honesty and othertimes, well, it can be an exercise in humility for mom and dad! ;)